IRS hall of shame 2009 - Stars in tax trouble

The past year has seen a vintage crop of celebrities getting into trouble with the US Internal Revenue Service. Our sister site, AccountingWEB.com helpfully compiled a list of the most notable tax cases of 2009.

Joe Francis
The producer of the Girls Gone Wild video series spent 300 days in jail after allegedly underreporting his income by $20m.
 
Richard Hatch
A winner of the Survivor TV reality show, Hatch was sentenced to 51 months in prison for evading taxes on his $1m prize.
 
Nicolas Cage
Cage remains the undisputed star of the IRS list of shame. In 2008 he wrangled a $660,000 settlement out of the agency to settle a claim for $1.8m in unpaid taxes, but the IRS came back for more in 2009, with a $6.26m claim related to 2007 income and another $360,000 for income earned between 2002 and 2004.

Val Kilmer
Action star Kilmer may have had superpowers in his role as Batman, but is unlikely to get the better of the IRS. New Jersey authorities are looking to claim more than $500,000 from him.

Black Eyed Peas
In recent weeks, the hip hop group discovered their business manager Sean Larkin had failed to file tax returns for the group for 10 years.
 
Aaron Carter
Singer and former Dancing With Stars participant Carter is being sued by the IRS for just over $1m in unpaid tax going back to 2003.

Alexis Stewart
The daughter of Martha Stewart followed her month into TV and radio presenting, but  says her accountant made mistakes that cost her $737,047 in taxes and $143,683 in interest on money earned in 2002.
 
Duane “Dog” Chapman
Better known as “Dog the Bounty Hunter”, Chapman is more likely to be feature as one of the targets of his own show unless he settles an unpaid tax bill amounting to more than $2m on income going back as far as 2002.
 
Annie Liebovitz
The celebrity photographer has been fighting lawsuits for the past last two years that claim she owes more than $700,000 in bills related to her photography services as well as tax liens for $1.4m.

Method Man
The Wu-Tang Clan member, real name Clifford Smith, is one of several rap acts wrestling with notices of unpaid taxes. His excuse? He wasn’t paying attention. “I'm a pothead,” he told reporters. “It's no secret. Everyone knows that. I go on the road and forget everything else. Sure, [the tax department] sent letters to my house saying, ‘We need this money.’ They started sending them in 2002.” 

Floyd Mayweather
After earning $10m from his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, Mayweather turned most of it over to the IRS to pay back tax obligations.